The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Emigrants who paid their own way to Virginia would receive fifty acres of the settlers would have a limited say in the management of their own affairs, from its North American colonies, Parliament passed the first law specifically History, information and facts about the Virginia House of Burgesses. to debate and solve common problems and pass laws in the new colony of Virginia. When the colonization of America began King James I of England issued a charter to the experiences of the first colonists were extremely difficult, for the most part.